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A Different Kind of Volunteer Work

More companies are encouraging employees to donate their professional expertise to nonprofit causes—on company time

By

Neil Parmar

Sept. 10, 2017 10:12 p.m. ET

As a research-and-development engineer at General Mills Inc., Madison Barre spends most of her workweek developing products for the Minneapolis-based food company. She also devotes about one to three hours, on average, plus some personal time, doing pro-bono work for small food companies in Africa.

The 27-year-old Ms. Barre (who also has worked as a quality engineer at General Mills) has shared tips on how to reduce contamination risk when handling raw ingredients and has offered guidance on subjects such as organizational...